USAT Age Group Nationals Report

 

What an exciting event this turned out to be.  On Saturday, June 30th, the best Age Group triathletes from around the country gathered at Hagg Lake, Oregon, to compete in this Olympic distance race.  Two local athletes took high honors, with Ben Collins winning the men's race and Team Triumph racer Tracy Orcutt taking 4th overall and winning the Masters.  (That's Ben on the left, after a smoking fast 17 minute swim). 

Tracy Orcutt had a great race, with a time of 2:13:06, after a 1:06 bike and a 41 minute run. 

The atmosphere of this event was different from a typical triathlon.  It was clear that the athletes were there to compete.  Athletes were required to set up their bikes the day before the race, and to attend a pre-race briefing at the Expo (which was held in the county fairgrounds, about 25 minutes from Hagg Lake).  Jill bumped into Tracy Orcutt and they watched the briefing together.  After that, Jill picked up her packet, a cool race shirt, and had her mug shot taken.

At the expo, Jill also met up with Team JFT² teammate Jessica Hayden-Spear, and then headed up to the lake to check out the transitions and to drop of the bike. 

The race is held inside a state park at Hagg Lake, which is an earth-dam reservoir.  The swim is pretty much an out-and-back, ending on a nice boat ramp that is between two floating docks, which were loaded with spectators.  The large transition area is in a parking lot, and the bike starts out up a sizeable hill.  The bike course is two loops around the lake on a road that is entirely within the park, so there are no driveways or side roads.  The run is an out-and-back on the same road, which is quite "hilly". 

The race day was an exciting event, similar to Kona.  Up-tempo music was playing through some pretty powerful speakers (you couldn't have a conversation within 20 yards of these speakers).  There were announcers discussing the various athletes as each wave was started.  The older AGs went out early, and after a couple of waves they took a 30 minute break before starting the younger waves.  After that the waves were taking off every four minutes.  It was easy to identify the waves during the swim, as they were segregated by cap color (and they had number stickers for the caps, which was cool).  After that, it was difficult to track who was in which wave. 

There was quite a rainstorm on the day before the race.  About half of the bikes were covered in plastic bags.  Race day, however, turned out to be an incredible day, with bright sunshine (for good race photos), but not too hot, and not too windy.  

The course is ideally suited for spectators, with a great view of the swim start and finish from the floating docks.  From there it is easy to maneuver around the transition area to follow your athletes through transition.  The two-loop bike course makes the time go very quickly as you try to track the race numbers of the AG leaders.  This is a challenge.  Since all of the athletes are "elite" there is no "elite wave", so there was no way to know for sure who won the race, or even the Age Groups, until this was announced at the awards dinner after the race.  No results were posted at the event. 

Lisa Walker, of Team Triumph, had a very good race, finishing 14th in her AG, and qualifying for the World AG championships.  Lisa finished with a time of 2:27:45.  Dick Holloway, also of Team Triumph, had a super finish taking 3rd in his Age Group with a time of 2:17:53.

For Team JFT², Jessie was very happy with her race, finishing ahead of Jill with her time of 2:34:41.  Read Jessie's race report here.  Jill finished with a time of 2:35:30, and was very happy with the power results of her bike, as well as her run.  For Team JFT2 members, her race report is here.  The race was a lot of fun, and we're sure to be back there next year, with a much bigger contingent of Team JFT² athletes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dick Holloway, 3rd best in the country on this day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Tracy Orcutt, bringing it home to win her Age Group!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jill, about to exit the swim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jessie, sprinting to the finish!

  

 It was great to meet Craig Lainer of Halo Swim Training Systems, at the expo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jill, heading up the hill just out of T1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jill and Tracy at the bike check in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Cool shirt and a lot of race numbers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transition area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The mug shot.